Name Brand Over Generic: Why?

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Name Brand over Generic: Why?
Why do people buy Kellogg’s Apple Jacks over Apple Rings, or Gap over Jordache? Why do we as consumers purchase the name brand product over its less expensive, generic counterpart? I don’t exactly know why, but I have an idea as to why.
Exposure, exposure to a product or name is the best way to let the public know you exist, and what your existence means to them. Radio, magazines, commercials, even billboards, anywhere a fairly large number of people will be “exposed” to your product, is as good a place to start as any. The main goal of exposure is to get you the consumer to gain awareness of the product’s existence, and hopefully invoke a positive response from you.
A better term for exposure is advertising, the commercials on TV, the ads in magazines, and the jingles and songs on the radio. According to Pavlov, the concept of mind conditioning individuals to certain stimulus is one that most likely results in a desired conditioned response. If you turn on the TV and see a commercial for an Egg Mc Muffin, hear the jingle on the radio as you’re driving to work, and see a billboard while driving on the expressway, the expected response is for you a consumer to go and purchase this particular sandwich at least in the advertiser’s perfect plan, that’s exactly how your decision to buy that Egg Mc Muffin was actually made. The repeat images of that sandwich conditioned you into making that purchase. To the advertiser, those outlets of advertising are the stimuli being used to generate your response, i.e. your Egg Mc
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Muffin purchase. Pavlov’s theory says that if you’re constantly exposed to a product, or a name, your mind is being conditioned to make that purchase or shift your preference or loyalty to one product or name over another.
Inside advertising itself, retailers are looking and expecting certain reactions to their ads or commercials. There’s the mental adver...